This invention relates to machinery used in connection with packing and processing produce, and more particularly, to a novel and improved machine for use in removing or culling undesirable produce from the desirable produce.
In the instant embodiment shown, a device will be described and shown which is useful in culling raisins and specifically for removing raisins that are bad, by excessive mold, from those raisins which are good.
It is known in the prior art that raisins which are subjected to mold have a softer and inferior skin and that the insides of the raisins are very soft. Thus, subjecting these raisins to extremely hot water pressure causes the skin on the inferior raisins to break and leaves a soft, pliable substance from the raisins. Now the soft, pliable raisins are removed sometimes by the water, but in most cases they are very difficult to remove.
Problems occur with the mold is that the bad raisins or moldy raisins become soft and sticky and become subjected to rot. Should these bad raisins be allowed to ramin with the good ones, the entire stock of raisins in the lot may become bad.
The United States Department of Agriculture has set certain standards as to the percentage of bad raisins in the good raisins, and that standard has normally been below 4%. Oftentimes, it has been found that the percentage of bad raisins may reach as high as 60%, but in most cases after considerable rain damage, rain and moisture, they will remain around 40%.
As is known, raisins are made by removing ripe grapes from the vines and placing them on drying trays right in the field. The grapes are then allowed to dry in the sun. In most cases because the grapes are ripe in the dry season, no harm comes to the raisins because of rainfall, but in special unusual weather some of the raisins in some area may be caught in an unusual or early rain. The rainfall or the moisture causes the mold in the raisins while they are drying on trays in the field.
Oftentimes, the farmers find it desirable to wait as long as they can before they harvest the grapes for drying to make the raisins. The reason for allowing the grape to stay on the vine as long as possible is that it improves the sugar content, and hence, the weight of the raisins, causing an economic gain to the farmer. Should the grape be harvested early, the grapes do not have the high sugar content, and thus, they are skinny and do not maintain the desired weight.
The problem of waiting too long for the grape to gain desired sugar content and plumpness for the use in the raisins, is that usually it causes the drying raisins to approach the rainy seasons. When the rainy seasons do come, the moisture causes the mold on the raisins at an undesirable level.
At one time when the raisins were in the unacceptable range, that is above the 4% level, they were discarded and literally plowed under in the fields. Presently the raisins are culled over by hand, and that is, the bad raisins are removed from the good raisins by manual labor.
Yet to discard the good raisins just because there happens to be a high mold content in the entire overall batch is wasteful and creates an economic loss to the farmer.
Heretofore there has been no mechanized and automatic system for removal of the bad raisins from the good ones. Thus, it would be desirable to have a mechanized and automatic system whereby the bad raisins are separated from the sound raisins, so that the crops of raisins can be partially saved, thus saving the farmer from the economic losses created by having to discard his crop.